Improved screw-support for hanging pictures



MORTON JUDI), OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT.

lIMPROVED SCREW-SUPPORT FOR HANGING PICTURES.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,837, dated April i, 1862.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MoRroN JUDD, of New Britain, in the county of ll'artford and State of Connecticut, have invented,made, and applied to use a certain new and useful Means for Hanging Pictures and Similar Articles; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my said invention, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, wherein- Figure l is a section of my improved pieture-stud, and Fig, 2 is an elevation of the same.

Similar marks of reference denote the same parts.

Ornamental nails and screws have heretofore been used for hanging pictures; but in order to fasten the same securely upon lathed partitions in particular it has been necessary to enter said screw or nail in one of the vertical timbers in order that the weight of the picture may not pull the nail out or break the plaster. It is almost impossible to drive a nail in the lath, because it is by the blow driven back away from the plaster, and when screwed in the leverage of the projecting end is such that the plaster is generally broken away, and the strain coming on a single lath,

instead of bein g distributed over several laths by the intervening plaster, is either split or Wrenched loose from the plaster and will sustain but little weight. AFor the aforesaid reasons great difliculty exists in placing pictures exactly in the desired place.

The nature of my said invention consists in combining with an ordinary screw a conical base which supports the screw by taking a bearing against the surface of the plaster, and a cord-retaining button that prevents the picture-cord slipping off the said conical base, thus forming as a whole a stud that is a new article of manufacture, and is not only cheap and strong, but, by binding the plaster to the lath, and that without any risk of cracking the plaster, so applies and distributes the strain that pictures can be hung with safety on lath-and-plaster walls in any desired position, thus overcoming all the diiculties heretofore experienced in this respect and producing new and useful results, as aforesaid.

In the drawings, a. represents the lathing, and b the plaster.

c is a screw of the desired size and length.

(Z is my conical base, and e is the cord-1e taining button.

The screw c holds the button e on the coni cal base (l, and for convenience in manufacture I prefer that this button e set slightly within the end of the conical base d, a depression being provided in the butt-ou for this purpose. The button e and conical base (l are shown as made of sheet metal, and may be more or less ornamented in any usual manner.

It will now be seen that the conical base d takes a bearing upon the surface of the plaster and sustains the screw c, forming a brace around its projecting end, while the screw itself simultaneously holds on the cord-retaining button e, presses the base d against the plaster, and draws the lath to the plaster, binding all together, and the screw, base, and button form a rm, neat, durable, and ornamental stud for hanging pictures and other articles.

f represents a portion of the picture-cord.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The conical base d, in combination with the cord-retaining butt-011 e and screw c, forming a stud for hanging pictures and other articles, as set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my signature this ist day of March, 1862.

MORTON JUDD.

Witnesses:

LEMUEL W. SERRELL, THos. G Eo. HAROLD. 

